Can Standard Range battery be replaced with Extended Range battery?

[Blue highway]

You might not be allowed to salvage the battery pack like you can parts from ICE cars.
If an MME was so severely damaged to be totaled out, the battery pack likely sustained some kind of damage and couldn't be safely "dropped-in" as a replacement. Maybe you'd have to buy a reconditioned pack, which wouldn't be as steep of a discount as other salvage parts would be.

there is a huge market for salvaged Tesla batteries, Prius batteries etc.

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[Jay_in_Austin]

You might not be allowed to salvage the battery pack like you can parts from ICE cars.
If an MME was so severely damaged to be totaled out, the battery pack likely sustained some kind of damage and couldn't be safely "dropped-in" as a replacement. Maybe you'd have to buy a reconditioned pack, which wouldn't be as steep of a discount as other salvage parts would be.

We will have to see what happens with the MME but batteries from wrecked Ford hybrids and plug-in hybrids have been selling at about 10% of the new price. There are not many Fords needing a battery replacement.

 

[dtbaker61]

Can the Standard Range battery in the Mach-E be replaced with an Extended Range battery?

I have a 2021 Mach-E Select RWD with the standard range battery (68KWH)
I drive 44,000 miles per year.
I have a feeling I will need to replace the battery in a few years.
I asked the dealer when I bought the car and they had no idea if it is possible.
Any body have any experience or knowledge about upgrading the battery?

if capacity degradation exceeds warranted max amount at 100k miles, you'll get a 'free' replacement.... I would 'baseline' your usable capacity now, verify with kWhr consumed over some known stretch of highway at specific speed and weather conditions.... and then if you have significant change in range at 90,000 miles, start angling for verification and possible warranty replacement.

I can't see why you couldn't replace with an extended range battery tray if you were willing to pay the difference regardless as the entire battery tray+HVBJB is a single 'part' that fits in the same space for SR/EX and has the same HV connectors and coolant lines. It would take re-programming several modules to match the new capacity, but I think all the connections are the same.

The 'used' battery tray may even have some trade-in or resale value.... the battery sub-assemblies will probably able to be split up, checked out, and re-packaged for Solar backup batteries since the current and capacity demands are typically much lower.

 

[bs1055]

300,000 / 44,000 = 6.8 years for OP.

I appreciate your direct + analytical nature.

 

[Rob S]

My apologies in advance for the stupid question. In reading the link:

"In normal conditions, a typical EV battery is rated for at least 1,000 to 1,500 charge cycles. The process of fully charging then discharging a battery is considered one complete charge cycle."

So... here's the stupid part... we've had our car for a little over a week, and have been charging nightly from 61%-62% to 80%. If a charging cycle is full charge to discharge, and we are only doing 20% charge per night, does that mean that we can charge 20% 4000-6000 times? We are never fully charging or discharging.

Not that it matters, the most we've ever put on a car is 140,000 miles before getting something different. Just curious.

 

[dtbaker61]

My apologies in advance for the stupid question. In reading the link:

"In normal conditions, a typical EV battery is rated for at least 1,000 to 1,500 charge cycles. The process of fully charging then discharging a battery is considered one complete charge cycle."

So... here's the stupid part... we've had our car for a little over a week, and have been charging nightly from 61%-62% to 80%. If a charging cycle is full charge to discharge, and we are only doing 20% charge per night, does that mean that we can charge 20% 4000-6000 times? We are never fully charging or discharging.

Not that it matters, the most we've ever put on a car is 140,000 miles before getting something different. Just curious.

li batteries love being between 50%-80%... if you bounce in that range *most of the time* you may get 5000+ charge cycles without much degradation.

 

[kennethjk]

My apologies in advance for the stupid question. In reading the link:

"In normal conditions, a typical EV battery is rated for at least 1,000 to 1,500 charge cycles. The process of fully charging then discharging a battery is considered one complete charge cycle."

So... here's the stupid part... we've had our car for a little over a week, and have been charging nightly from 61%-62% to 80%. If a charging cycle is full charge to discharge, and we are only doing 20% charge per night, does that mean that we can charge 20% 4000-6000 times? We are never fully charging or discharging.

Not that it matters, the most we've ever put on a car is 140,000 miles before getting something different. Just curious.

If you are only adding 20% each time , doesn't that mean you could charge 5,000-7,500 times using your 1,000-1,500 charge cycles. If extended battery and 20% equals say 50 miles, that would mean 250,000-375,000 miles.

 

[Raymondjram]

I know that the li-ion battery will last a long time. But some chemistries can develop a "memory" from low usage such that the range can drop. I recommend doing a full discharge and charge cycle once every few months. This will also reset the range calculations.

 

[dtbaker61]

I know that the li-ion battery will last a long time. But some chemistries can develop a "memory" from low usage such that the range can drop. I recommend doing a full discharge and charge cycle once every few months. This will also reset the range calculations.

Li batteries in our MME do not work that way. Full discharge risks permanent damage and loss of capacity.

 

[ARK]

I think the wiring for the ER batteries to the motors is very different, so replacing an SR battery with an ER battery would require substantially more than just swapping the packs.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The extended battery should fit, the issue is going to be the module software not being programmed for the larger battery. That's not going to be supported officially by Ford. Springs should also be changed due to the heavier weight.

This will probably be a similar situation to the Nissan Leaf batteries, the aftermarket has developed ways of adding a larger capacity pack into older models to give them new life. Maybe some aftermarket company will do that for the Mach-E in five years when the battery warranties start expiring.

But for now, there's nothing you can do without voiding your warranty. If your pack goes bad you get the same size as a replacement. Sell and get an extended Mach-E instead.

 

[Mach-Lee]

OP is driving 44,000 miles a year.

Battery warranty is 8 years OR 100,000 miles.

OP will no longer have warranty at 2 years, 3 months, and 1 week.

Ford says >= 70% at that point.

OP, a lot of us would be curious about your remaining battery capacity as you approach 100,000 miles. You're one of the highest mileage Mach-E's out there.

For those of you that don’t click into the link I posted…..

a lithium battery is rated for 1500 charge cycles. Ifyou multiply that by the low end of mileage range at 200, you should get at least 300,000 miles before the battery is depleted. You really think you would have the car that long?

That isn't completely true because there is also a time component to lithium battery degradation. Basically once a lithium battery is made, it starts degrading even if it isn't used. Only batteries that are cycled in a short period of time in controlled conditions will make it all the way to 1500 cycles before degrading. Having said that, I feel like the average pack should last around 200,000 miles if you get there before 8 years age. But once the pack is like 15 years old, all bets are off, it could fail at any mileage.

For comparison, original Tesla Roadsters that are now 10-14 years old are experiencing mostly age-related failures with the packs, even with low mileage.

In short, age is going to be your enemy, not miles.

 

[dtbaker61]

I think the wiring for the ER batteries to the motors is very different, so replacing an SR battery with an ER battery would require substantially more than just swapping the packs.

Is it?
I know the GT wiring harness is different because the front motor is bigger. But I am unaware of any differences on the battery end making a difference between the SR and ER battery.

I guess if we were really curious about it we could get into a parts list to find out, worst case is it would just be a different wiring harness, and appropriate software changes to account for the extra capacity

 

[Moomin]

What is the extension on the ER battery? When asking if it you can install the larger battery, do they alter the space between cars? Edit = Sorry I noticed I attached the wrong image. These are both AWD now. (the previous had a RWD and AWD That's the extra purple motor)

 

[dtbaker61]

What is the extension on the ER battery? When asking if it you can install the larger battery, do they alter the space between cars?

This is a cool picture I never saw this before. It looks to me like the extra kilowatt hours are in a couple extra packs at the rear of the tray that stick up under the cargo area. The Sr doesn't have the extra packs but the base is basically the same from this picture

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